Terms to Know

French Revolution: Terms to Know

Divine Right

• The Right that a ruler has given to them by the gods to rule

Limited monarch

• A monarch whose power has been limited by a constitution or laws

Decrees of August 4

• Abolished concepts of nobility, creating a society based on equality

National Assembly:

• An assembly formed by the Third-Estate because of unequal representation

Liberty, Equality, Fraternity

• Motto of the Republic

Bastille:

• A fortress full of weapons in France
• Also held prisoners

July 14, 1789

• The Storming of the Bastille

Legislative Assembly

• The Legislature of France from 1791 to 1792

April 1792

• France declares war on Austria, Prussia and Sardinia

August 1792

• The mobs in Paris attacked the palace of Louis XIV and overthrew the monarchy

Estates-General

• Legislative government of France, split into 3 unequal social classes

Girondists

• Liberals of France who wanted to end the monarchy

September Massacres

• Prisoners were killed in France

Versailles

• The royal family's summer palace in France

Marie Antoinette

• King Louis XIV's Austrian wife
• Beheaded

Louis XVI

• French king during the time of the French Revolution
• Not a good king

Guillotine:

• created during the French Revolution as a fair and equal way to murder people

January 21, 1793

• Louis XIV was beheaded

Jacobins:

• Radical thinkers who passionately wanted to get rid of the king and would resort to violence to get rid of him.

Reign of Terror:

• The Jacobins began executing thousands of people, starting with nobles

Absolute monarchy

• A monarch has complete control

Napoleon Bonaparte

• Popular French general who took over and restored order to France

‘Parlements’

• separate from king, created laws in France

‘Emigres’

• Nobles who fled from France during the Revolution

Rousseau

• Philosopher who believed government was the source of all corruption

Seven Years’ War

• War mostly between Britain and France who dragged a bunch of other European countries in it too

The Directory

• French Revolutionary government

Robespierre:

• One of the three revolutionary Jacobin leaders